We recently connected with Peggie Lyons and have shared our conversation below.

Peggie, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Last year, PJL Candles was a vendor for Earn Your Leisure’s Invest Fest, which is a huge financial festival in Atlanta. A friend sent me information about it several months prior, and once I saw the vendor fee….I did not feel like my company was ready for something of that magnitude. I had so much doubt, and I was ready to say no right away. My friend truly believed in me and my company and was super encouraging and made me feel like I could and should do it. This is why it’s so important to have amazing people in your corner. I knew that Invest Fest would be the biggest single investment I’ve made in my business, and my friend didn’t let me use that as an excuse. I’d never vended at an event that big or made that many candles and room sprays in such a short amount of time. There were so many things I had to adjust and update to make it a success. And it was absolutely a success. I built my first team, made several connections with other entrepreneurs, and PJL Candles found so many new customers from all around the country. I can say that the biggest risk I’ve taken in my business generated the biggest success. I have to say a huge thank you to my dear friend Soso for the push!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started PJL Candles in 2020. I had always been a huge fan of candles and aromatherapy in general. So when the world shut down, I had a crazy idea to start a candle brand and started to think I might actually be able to do it. I developed PJL Candles because I know that candles can relieve stress or make a great day even better. I wanted to create a brand that literally spreads Peace, Joy, and Love – hence the name PJL Candles. Self-care is so important and lighting a candle while you meditate or take a bath or after you clean is just that little extra touch that shows some love to yourself. Not only is it important for me to put Love into every aspect of my business, but I also show Peace, Joy, and Love through the scents I choose and the names. For example, the stress-relieving lavender fragrance is Good Days, the fun and fruity fragrance is Saturday Morning, and the sultry amber and vanilla fragrance is Slow Dance. I’ve expanded into also offering room sprays, so your fave can be taken on the go. And I’m excited to offer more products in the near future!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve had to unlearn the “I’ll do hit myself” mindset. I’ve always been a very independent person and my approach to PJL Candles was no different. I didn’t know how to ask for help, so I would always push myself to get everything done. I soon found out that I was only hindering my business and running myself into the ground. As a solopreneur, I create content, develop and make products, work all vending events, ship orders, manage the website, manage accounting, create and plan all email marketing, and the list continues. I had to realize that if I want my business to grow and be scalable, I have to learn how to let go of control and put systems and processes in place that support a successful company. I’m not perfect at it, but I’ve started to ask for help more often. This is teaching me a valuable lesson about how to build a team and how to discover where someone will thrive based on their talents, not necessarily based on where you want them. If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

PJL Candles is hosted on my website. I considered using a platform like Etsy, but it was important for me to have autonomy, I also really enjoy learning about how to build websites and trying different things to see what works best. Of course I have to do more marketing and SEO to bring people to. my specific site, but these are skills that are necessary to grow my business into the household name that I want it to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: pjlcandles.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pjlcandles/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/PJL-Candles/100055188582916/